It all started in the halcyon days of yore... namely Thursday, January 15. I remember it like it was just a couple of weeks ago. Frontier Airlines ran a one day sale, $29 one-way tickets from about a dozen airports.

On a whim, I noted O'Hare was one of the airports. Continuing on, Las Vegas was one of the destinations. Further whimming revealed that Super Bowl Eve was available. Finally, a mid-week return trip redeye was $69, putting a 3-day impulse round trip at an impossible $98. My poker buddy, Scott (who works with me) called his wife and jumped on it.Knowing that My-Sugar-Na couldn't be away from work that long, I checked the cost of a redeye return on Sunday night, which was $109, making my round trip $140.

Although I can be a goofball, and sometimes make questionable decisions, I am rarely too impulsive. But the Vegas geek in me got caught up in how cool it would be to find a real bargain, and just say "What the Hell?" and do it like some college kids. I picked up the Bat-Emailer and contacted My-Sugar-Na, and the conversation went like this...

I am not going to Opening Day for the first time since 2004, been to 16 overall since 1985... Predictions are impossible this year. Gallardo = 2008 Sheets, Parra = 2007 Gallardo. The key is if there is the opportunity to get an ace before July... I had a 300 game at Riviera Lanes a few weeks ago, it was my 16th... Leaving for Vegas in two weeks to bowl the USBC Open Championships, aka Nationals... The bar has been set, and it won't be topped this year... Wisconsin bowlers tend to do well at Nationals... Not gonna eatmywaythroughLas Vegas... Don't think I can eat steak for three meals a day for six days? Try me... Copper prices are going up, is the recession almost over? Oil is going up, so it just may be... Maybe not for the captain, but the first thing I thought of when I read this was "Cool"... Still looking for bloggers in West Allis to write about issues... But don't look at me, I've got more important things to write about... Metallica is in the middle of a month-long marathon on XM42, it goes through Monday... (Sponsor's Name Here)'s Offical Son, Mitten, was the starting pitcher for his Rufus King High School JV team on April 8th. He and another pitcher combined to no-hit Bay View High School 17-4 (side note; 17-4 and a no-hitter? Yeah, it was JV)... Mitten's fastball was clocked as Thursday... It can't be that hard is it to make sure your van is empty first... Or to put your baby in a crib... Or keep your beer truck on its tires... Way cool... So is this... And this... My-Sugar-Na thinks I have too many blog links... Blame Mark the Editor, he showed me how... My-Sugar-Na's new shoes give her blisters... Hey, bbear, quarter craps (but only 10x odds kinda stink)... The Milwaukee Wave managed a 10-10 record with a bunch of guys you've never heard of. Next year should be much better if they can retain their stars... In one of the other indoor soccer leagues, the PASL-Pro, the Stockton Cougars won the championship, were sold, then fired their head coach... In the third indoor soccer league, the Baltimore Blast will face the Rockford Rampage in Baltimore this weekend for the NISL title... Happy Easter, y'alls!

The World Baseball Classic (WBC) is an international baseball tournament that - though first held in 2006 - will be held every fourth year. In both 2006 and 2009, 16 teams from North America, Asia, Europe, Australia and Africa participated.

I am one of those who will watch A Christmas Story marathon on TBS more than once today. Watching it last night while I wrapped presents got me thinking about the process of making that movie. When it was on a few weeks ago, I did some internetting and read all about the movie on Wikipedia, IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes. Without spending too much of my Christmas morning recapping those three websites, the point I want to address is that the movie was set in a floating period of 1939 through 1942 (it was intentionally not specific) in a made up city that really was Hammond, IN (a Chicago suburb). The movie was released in 1983 - 25 years ago... and set 40 years earlier

1) When you are driving on the freeway in the snow and the rest of the traffic is going 45 MPH, then YOU should go 45 MPH or else get off the freeway. If you are afraid to maintain freeway speeds in the snow, park the car in the garage and take the bus. Along those lines, JS Online had a poll question that asked what annoys people most after a snowfall, fast drivers or slow drivers. It was a dumb question, it should have asked "which drivers are more dangerous in the snow, fast drivers or slow drivers?" Slow drivers are far more dangerous because everyone is trying to go around them causing cars to slide while switching lanes, and causing the pokey drivers to panic and drive even slower. I was behind a car with an easy to memorize vanity plate. I won't call out her car here, but if I ever get stuck behind her and find that she is soley causing a traffic disaster on I-894 southbound between the Zoo and the Hale again, I will identify her.

I really hate reality shows. Most are pretty very lame, with constant back biting, lying, and non-existant-but-dammit-we're-gonna-tell-you-anyhow storylines. Considering a show like Stupidvivor, they take over 100 hours of footage of multiple contestants, and edit down to a 46-minute story. That is NOT reality. That is a serial protrayed by underpaid, non-union actors.

A record setting day in the mobile child delivery system industry. 22 cars parked beat the record (of 21 cars set yesterday). However to be fair, My-Sugar-Na and I made more money yesterday, as the "Demand is more than supply" theory set the pricing. And to prove the free market works, today "Supply was more than demand", so pricing needed to be adjusted accordingly. However as of tonight, we are 60% of what we made last year, with a full week to go. My theory that more folks are taking local vacations seems to be bearing out.

Some time in 2007, (Sponsor's Name Here)'s Official Daughter, Gooey, and (Sponsor's Name Here)'s Official Stepdaughter, Sloppy, concocted Cheer Day. Conveniently held in conjunction with Sloppy's birthday party, Cheer Day was to be a day when the two girls thrilled us with their repartee of cheers and dances. However, Gooey had broken her arm in the week leading up to Cheer Day, and on the big day wasn't feeling well. In other words, the First Annual Cheer Day fizzled.

New York City was fun (but I wouldn't want to live there!) I did the chronological last week, so instead I will pick some topics which I find interesting (or from which I have interesting photos. We took about 300 pictures, and printed about 185. Consider yourself lucky you only are seeing this small sampling). Again, I apologize if you don't care, but at this point my hit-o-meter has regestered your visit, and I thank you.

I watch too much baseball on TV. And purportedly to keep the game interesting, broadcast directors waste countless hours showing us the fans at the game. This tells me one of two things; either that the game itself isn't worthy of the viewer's attention, or that the viewers aren't bright enough to want to watch baseball and that we'd rather see the people at the game watching the game. Worst upon worst are the crowd shots of some guy talking - or worse, texting - on his cell phone.

Last night, I was that guy.

A supplier took me and two co-workers to the Brewers game last night (side note - the Brewers are now 1-5 in games that I've attended so far this season). Apparently late in yesterday's game, I was on TV during a crowd shot. Unfortunately, it was during one of two times that I was sending a text message to (Sponsor's Name Here)'s Official Son, Mitten, who was letting me know how he played in his game yesterday.

I joined my first Fantasy Football League in 1993 (while I was working at the now-evil USBC, then called the American Bowling Congress). One guy in the league had a wife who owned a business, and his team was named for his wife's business. Seeing that, when asked what name I wanted, I said that I didn't have a corporate sponsor, yet, so I would take (Sponsor's Name Here). Nobody much got it then.

In my third-ever post back in March 2007 (a brilliant post, by the way) I detailed how the NFL is vigorously defending its marks, and mentioned that the NFL had previously sent letters to Las Vegas casinos stating that the Super Bowl cannot be shown in “public on screens that, according to federal law, are larger than those 'commonly used in private homes'."

Thursday evening, My-Sugar-Na and I went to Potowatomi Casino to watch the Packers game in the Northern Lights theater. We made the mistake of eating at the buffet before saving our seats, and when we got to the theater an hour before game time, all of the seats were either saved or occipied. My-Sugar-Na and I waited for about thirty minutes until two seats opened up. In the row directly behind us was Frank Calieno's father. Unsolicited, he introduced himself to us as "Frank Caliendo's Dad". I don't actually know his first name. Clearly, he is proud of his son, and he was quite proud of the fact that the elder Caliendo had just gotten back from California and will be on an episode of Frank TV in the near future.